1851 150 Years Ago

THE FUGITIVE

On February 15, in Boston, a black coffeehouse waiter named Shadrach Minkins was seized by federal marshals at the behest of John DeBree of Norfolk, Virginia, who claimed him as his property. The waiter, also known as Frederick Wilkins, had fled Virginia months earlier, and until recently Boston’s relaxed attitude toward fugitives had protected him against arrest. But the new Fugitive Slave Act, passed as part of the Compromise of 1850, had given slave owners a much more powerful legal weapon by placing enforcement in the hands of federal officials.

Richard Henry Dana, the author, sailor, and lawyer, and Robert Morris, the nation’s second black attorney, volunteered to represent Wilkins. They asked Lemuel Shaw, chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, to free the prisoner on the grounds that he had been seized without good cause. Despite a personal abhorrence of slavery, Shaw—who a year earlier had written the court’s decision permitting segregated schools—declined to interfere. As the hearing was about to end, however, some 50 black Bostonians stormed the courtroom (after Morris had opened the door for them, according to some witnesses), surrounded Wilkins, and carried him off. He was soon reported to be safe in Montreal.

President Millard Fillmore issued a proclamation calling for the arrest of “all persons, who shall have made themselves aiders and abettors in this flagitious offence.” Morris and several others were tried and found guilty, only to be freed on a technicality. In November, Morris was retried and acquitted. At this point the federal government despaired of finding an impartial jury. No one was ever convicted for assisting Wilkins.

While the Wilkins rescue encouraged black fugitives, and potential fugitives, by showing that they had sympathizers in the North, it also reinforced the belief of white Southerners that they had been swindled with an unenforceable law in the Compromise of 1850. By serving the cause of freedom, this and other fugitive-slave rescues took the nation one step farther down the road to eventual dissolution.

Why do we need a national
nonprofit membership society for American history?

“Save America’s Treasures” has been totally eliminated—the largest Federal program supporting preservation of such treasures as the original Star Spangled Banner and George Washington’s tent.

65% of Americans don’t know what happened at the Constitutional Convention, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.

The “Teaching American History” grants—the largest Federal program supporting history education—have been completely eliminated.

Visits to the Top 20 Civil War battlefields have dropped in half from 1970 to 2009 according to official National Park Service statistics.

40% of Americans can’t identify whom we fought in World War II, according to a recent survey by Newsweek.

A quarter of Americans believe Congress shares power over U.S. foreign policy with the United Nations, according to a recent Annenberg survey.

“There is little that is more important for an American citizen to know than the history and traditions of his country,” John F. Kennedy wrote in American Heritage.

The “We the People Program,” which touched some 30 million students and 90,000 teachers over 25 years, has been completely eliminated.

Two-thirds of Americans could not correctly name Yorktown as the last major military action of the American Revolution, according to a recent national Gallup survey.

The National Heritage Areas and Scenic Byways program, the only major Federal program encouraging visits to historic places, has been completely eliminated in Congressional committee.